There are many applications in which a hose is used to transport material—gases, liquids, etc., and the hose needs to be configured for one or both of its ends to quickly and easily be inserted into a receptacle. An example of which is the hose that is used to connect a breathing mask to a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine used by people who suffer from sleep apnea. The hose used with a CPAP machine may have a soft plastic “cuff” at the end(s), which may provide a more positive connection to the machine and/or to the mask.
The soft plastic cuff may be formed by over-molding plastic over the end of the hose body. However, this approach has problems, particularly that the molding process must shut off on the helical hose, and often tends to pinch the flexible hose, creating quality and functional defects thereat.
The over-molded cuff arrangement and method disclosed herein solves these problems for the molding of plastic cuffs for hoses that use such end cuffs, including, but not limited to, the above-noted example of the CPAP hose.